All the “laws of physics” (i.e. the theoretical postulates which do not appear to have any invalidating evidence) are based on assumptions. These same assumptions are clearly a fundamental aspect of the law, but all too often they are not stated explicitly with stating the law.This omission often results in a misinterpretation or a faulty assumption as to the realm of applicability of the law.

One case in point is the addition of Einstein’s theories of relativity which make it clear that Newton’s Second Law is not applicable to masses which are traveling near the speed of light.This does not invalidate Newton’s Second Law, but instead indicates a limited range of applicability of the law, but that while within that range, the law is still valid.However, even in the “realm of applicability” where Newton’s Laws are still considered accurate, the Second law is nevertheless technically bound by certain basic assumptions. [4/1/05] Another example is the viability of the theory of evolution in most cases and/or species, but where the theory's realm of applicability is not necessarily universal, and instead an extended version -- that of Creative Evolution -- is essential.

One such assumption is that Newton’s Laws are only applicable to a mass without dimensions (a “point mass”).This assumption is inherently applied to all real masses despite the fact that virtually by definition a “point mass” cannot exist in nature; for a body to have mass inherently implies that the body also has dimensions.Therefore, for a force to act upon the body, it will in the general case act upon one portion of that body and not upon the entire body all at once, or not with the same intensity to all parts of the body.

This can be illustrated in the following way.Assume a force is applied to one end of a rod one meter long.Before the rod can react to this force (in accordance with Newton’s Third Law), the “action” of the force must make it’s way along the length of the rod, and then return to where the force is being applied (and thus be in a position to react to the external force).The rod, in effect, acts as if all of its mass were concentrated at its center of gravity.Inasmuch as the speed at which the initial presence of the force is transmitted along the length of a typical rod is on the order of 5000 meters per second (effectively the speed of sound in the medium), any “transmission time” of the information (regarding application of the external force) is quite short.In the case of a metal, for example, this transmission might be on the order of one ten-thousandth of a second (0.0001 seconds).Typically, such a small increment of time does not appear to have significant effects -- an appearance, however, which may not always be accurate in specific cases.

The “transmission time” viewpoint also allows us view the fundamental assumption of Newton’s Laws in another form, i.e.: The assumption of absolute time (i.e. of absolute simultaneity) if the action is at a distance.This is despite the reality that the “reaction” of a body to an externally applied force can not in general besimultaneous with the initial application (“action”) of the external force.This profound restriction on Newton’s Laws brings time into the equation -- which as we shall see, becomes a critical factor.

It should be noted that this concept of a non-simultaneous “reaction time” to an applied force (whatever the nature of that force is considered to be) is applicable not only in mechanics, but also in electromagnetism.A sudden surge (an “action”) of current along a conductor, for example, will also result in an equal and opposite reaction -- but again not simultaneously.In moving electricity from Hoover Dam to Los Angeles, for example, the length of the transmission line became absolutely critical, and in effect, without taking this into account, the voltage potential at the source of the electricity saw an “open” circuit and did not commence the flow of electricity (even when there was no “open” circuit).

Likewise a rotating shaft surrounded by permanent magnets arranged so as to impel the rotation will encounter an equal and opposite magnetic force which will brake the rotation -- after a time delay, or what Davis [1] called the “Critical Action Time”.The point to be emphasized here is that the laws of mechanics are applicable in the electromagnetic realm and vice versa, and that mechanics, electromagnetism, and other areas of physics are not separate or unrelated.Rindler [2], for example, in basing one of the arguments for the Relativity Principle on “the unity of physics”, has said, “It has become increasingly obvious that physics cannot be separated into strictly independent branches.”

There is yet a third assumption of Newton’s Law that is often glossed over.This is the idea that the body upon which an external force acts, is a rigid body.It’s rather as if when you push a large lump of jello, you may get a equal and opposite reaction by the jello on your finger, but the jello itself may not accelerate as a body whose dimensions have not been altered by the imposition of the external force.This latter assumption has profound implications in situations substantially more interesting that pushing against jello (or as exemplified in the old adage, “Don’t push the river.”).

Consider, for example, an artillery shell (generally assumed to be a rigid body) impacting upon a sheet of armor plate (also assumed to be rigid).As the artillery shell first strikes the armor plate, the leading edge of the artillery shell (call it the first wave of atoms in the makeup of the artillery shell) is forced backwards by the Coulomb repulsion between electrons in the outer shells of the atoms in both the artillery shell and the armor plate.This first wave, however, quickly finds itself repulsed by the atoms in the artillery shell immediately behind the leading edge (i.e. the “second wave”).(One can also think of this as “being caught between the rock and the hard place.”)The process continues with succeeding waves of atoms in the artillery shell, until the leading portion of the shell isoscillating against the armor shell -- effectively hammering its way into the armor plate.Meanwhile, the trailing edge of the artillery shell proceeds to deaccelerate in a non-oscillatory fashion.In effect, under the extreme deacceleration of the artillery shell upon impacting the armor plate, the artillery shell proves itself not to be a rigid body -- a fact which, according to Stine [3], has been experimentally observed!

The fundamental key to all of this is that something not generally appreciated about Newton’s Second and Third Laws is the fact that the laws fail at extreme accelerations (or in this case, deaccelerations). This point has been addressed by Davis and Stine and others, who realized that the non-simultaneity and possibly non-rigid nature of reality comes into play under conditions of extreme accelerations.

The lack of simultaneity in electromagnetic systems is similarly affected, and as shown in The Fifth Element (and more definitively in the related Mathematical Theory), the time delay effect is equally critical.In fact, electromagnetics -- in that it involves electrons which have a much greater stability than mechanical components from failure -- may be an even more important application of Connective Physics.This would apply to fields such as Superconductivity, but would also include fluid mechanics (e.g. Sonoluminescence).

In general, all of The Laws of Physics are dependent upon the assumptions, and any lack of attention to the assumptions -- the Paradigms of modern science (see the introduction to New Energy Ramifications) -- will result in scientifically unsupportable conclusions.